From: owner-harbinger-digest@smoe.org (harbinger-digest) To: harbinger-digest@smoe.org Subject: harbinger-digest V3 #124 Reply-To: harbinger@smoe.org Sender: owner-harbinger-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-harbinger-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk harbinger-digest Monday, April 20 1998 Volume 03 : Number 124 HARBINGER DIGEST To post, mail harbinger@smoe.org To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe harbinger-digest To get list info file, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: info harbinger-digest Today's Subjects: ---------------- (harbinger) PC Article in Rolling Stone [Sah2348 ] Re: (harbinger) hey;-) Alot of OFF TOPICS!!!!! But This is important info, scan quickly if you like Missy Eliott/Donna Lewis/AllSaints [] Re: (harbinger) Paula on TV (Europe) [sus@home.ivm.de] Re: (harbinger) PC Article in Rolling Stone [HunterXTC Subject: (harbinger) PC Article in Rolling Stone Hi all! Latest issue of Rolling Stone, issue 786 May 14, 1998, has quite the lengthy article on Ms. Cole. Here it is, bear with me, it's quite long but good! :) The cover snipet reads: Paula Cole Confessions of An Unrepentant Bohemian An amazing 2 page spread beginning of the article picture of Paula. She looks rather witchish, she's kinda curled up wearing black that drapes behind her, her gaze is up, her hair is spread on the surface which she lays upon. Overall a very interesting photo, you must check it out for yourself! The COLE TRUTH Confessions for an unrepentant bohemian by Jancee Dunn Most people don't know what to make of Paula Cole. Some know that her album This Fire nabbed a whopping seven Grammy nominations. Others know she was a standout at last year's Lilith Fair. Her image seems to be a bit murky, however. The combo plate of luxuriant armpit hair and stylized, glossy videos tends to confuse. Is she that sexually swingin', crazy art chick you knew in college? A rage-filled, piano-poundin' El Nino? A Betty Friedan-readin', bra-eschewin' activist? Or is she a yoga-practicin' Earth mama who wears Celestial Seasonings tea bags as earrings? "Well, I do sip herbal tea," she says. "I am someone who likes to garden, talk to my cats and be wacky hippie bird lady. I am intelligent. I am a feminist. I never wear a bra- it's too binding. And I do swear and smoke pot and shake my ass." She nods thoughtfully. "So I'm all that. I am all that." It is the day before the Grammys, and Coles is at the MTV studios in New York for MTV Live. This is not her bag. In fact, she looks distinctly nauseated. Cole is seated next to Meredith Brooks, who is not a big hit among the staff. With her litany of complaints and demands, Brooks has been much more of a bitch than a mother or a child or a lover. "You have nine Grammy nominations between the two of you," host Carson Daly says. Cole looks at the floor. Brooks smirks. To worsen matters, a viewer poll predicting the Grammy winners is posted. Hanson score big. Daly asks Cole and Brooks about how their lives have changed in the past month. "My phone rings about every minute," says Cole. "So I'm avoiding the phone. But, you know, in the big spiritual picture, it doesn't matter." Finally the show is over, and Cole heads out to a waiting limo. It is dark and rainy outside, silent and cozy in the car. She scrunches herself into a corner and stares out the window as the rain dribbles down. "All those bright colors and everyone in your face and having to condense your personality into these little sound bites," she says. "You know, I never even watched the Grammys. We didn't grow up watching TV." She is quiet as the limo glides towards her Manhattan apartment, where her boyfriend and her cats and her wood-burning fireplace await. "My life has changed so dramatically," she adds. "It's really bizarre and abnormal. I miss my parents. And there's no time. I mean, I had to pee in a cup the other day." Well, that's just wrong. "It is. I miss my friends. And I have to be more mean and...strong, because people are so demanding of me right now." She sighs. "I feel like I'm mourning the loss of my little girl inside, you know?" The metamorphosis began in 1996, when This Fire, Cole's intense second album, was released and slowly racked up platinum sales with three solid singles: "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?," "I Don't Want to Wait"- the theme song for the series Dawson's Creek- and the most recent, "Me." Lilith Fair brought more Cole fans (who will rejoice at her return engagement this summer), and this whole seven- Grammy-nomination business closed the deal, famewise, for Paula Cole of Rockport, Massachusetts, former hotel-lounge singer and card- carrying soul-sister woman. Well, we all know how the Grammys turned out. Cole got herself one Grammy, for Best New Artist. "About halfway through, I was getting filled with dread," she says. "I really thought I wasn't going to win anything." After she accepted her award, she went backstage and sobbed. "As much as I want to say it didn't matter, it really did," she confesses. Cole is standing on Fifth Avenue in New York, squinting a little in the bright sun. "Let's walk," she says serenely, slipping her arm in mine and heading into Central Park. As she strolls along, folks check her out and occasionally point. She is tall, strong and straight-backed, glowing with vegan health and moving confidently through the crowds in her all-black ensemble. In videos and photos, she looks like she has a prominent jaw, but in person it is much softer, as are her other features (Windex- blue eyes, glossy black hair). Her voice is gentle and melodious, and she looks you square in the eye when she speaks. She is much more relaxed today, having unleashed her churning emotions upon the Grammy stage. It was a rocking minute-and-a- half performance, beginning with a flash of serious armpit growth and ending with Cole's trademark human beatbox. "I've been doing that for years," she says. "It brings the house down. It's just this paradox coming out of this little white girl." She laughs. "Thank God I have music to vent my emotions. My mom says I'd be in prison if I didn't have it." Cole, 30, is an interesting paradox. In person she exudes a Zen-like calm, yet she has a deep well of anger, which is usually unlocked by music. "I'm a bit of a live wire, and music stirs up my energy inside," she says. "If something is wrong with my emotions, my feelings instantly turn to rage." This comes from a lifetime of struggling to please people, which, she says, "partly disgusts me. I tried so hard to please everyone that I would lose myself- which I think happens to a lot of women. I was the golden girl as a kid." Although the former prom queen has left her strait-laced Yankee past behind, she still feels that pressure to be Miss Perfect. "I may not be class president, but I am Paula Cole, and that's kind of similiar," she says. Often she will release this typhoon of rage onstage, but occasionally she finds herself being "snappy and curt" to people she doesn't mean to be snappy and curt with offstage. The pressure now is unending, and she doesn't like the way it makes her feel. Even as a young child, Paula Cole was percolating with feelings. She spent her earliest years in Ithaca, New York, in a trailer park, with her sister, Irene; artist mom, Stephanie; and father, Jim, who at that time was studying for his doctorate in entomology (bugs, to oversimplify) at Cornell. "His life became so miserable, staring at a petri dish under a microscope fourteen hours a day, that he had an epiphany slash nervous breakdown," Cole says, "which was probably one of the best things that happened to him, because we left that life." He took a job as a biology professor at Salem State College (eventually leaving to become a quality-control manager), and the family moved to Rockport. "They bought this 200 year-old colonial house that was in the crappiest condition, and they were constantly renovating it," Cole recalls. "I just remember growing up amidst insulation and sheetrock, and it was so fucking cold in my house." (The lyrics to "Bethlehem," on her debut album, Harbinger, include the lines "It's my birthday next week, and what I want, please/Is to turn on the heat so the fish won't freeze/The fish in the tank froze and died last week/ Oh, I want to be a dog or I want to be a leaf.") The family ate alot of mac 'n' cheese and franks 'n' beans, so a repulsed Cole ate "cereal for my entire youth- breakfast, lunch, dinner." The household, she says, was "rich with music. My dad played a lot of folk songs- Buck Owens, Johnny Cash- people that told stories. And I was a little canary." Early songwriting efforts included "My Name is Paula" and the ominous-sounding "God May Take the Earth." "My sister was literally able to sing before she could talk," says Irene, now a nurse in San Francisco. "She really had this God-given talent. I remember her singing in school plays and just being so, so good- so beyond what the little town of Rockport could offer." In her small high school, Cole was an honor student and was actively involved in chorus, musicals ("I sang all those sexist songs like "I Enjoy Being a Girl' ") and cheerleading ("I like the musicality and rhythm of it; also, I thought it would help my popularity"), and she was class president for three years. Oh, and junior prom queen. "I put together the prom, so I think they made me queen as a sympathy vote," she says. "I went with a friend." She says that nobody asked her out. "Actually, if they had, I think I would have been terrified," she recalls. "I don't think I was comfortable with my sexuality at that point. I was still very tender and afraid. I was a fragile young bud in a hostile world." You may have noticed that some of the things Cole says are the kinds of tremulous, corny things that twelve-year-old girls say before they learn to be self-conscious. "I just go with the flow," she'll say. "Merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream." This takes getting used to, but, rest assured, it is not a pose. "Paula really is that person who comes through in interviews and who she portrays onstage," says Irene. "She's very real." Anyhoo. When Cole made her way to the Berklee College Music of Music, in Boston, the aforementioned young bud burst all over the damn place. I didn't become sexually free until I left my parents and left Rockport," Cole says. "I made some mistakes, that's for sure. I just went with the way my body felt. I definitely was not prepared to be a woman in this world. Like so many of us." We walk briskly as a breeze picks up, lightly scented with duck shit, which, Cole points out, "makes life." At Berklee, Cole took classes in jazz vocals, and she supported herself by singing in hotel lounges and weddings, "in some bad dress, singing Whitney Houston or something." She also sang backup for Dale Bozzio of Missing Persons during Bozzio's previously-unremarked-upon solo stint. "Back then, she was staring at the floor, closing her eyes or even turning her back on the audience," says her longtime drummer, Jay Bellerose. "So many teachers would tell her she had to make eye contact." During her time at Berklee, Cole suffered through an emotional breakdown and entered therapy. " I was having a lot of sinister thoughts," she says quietly as we stop by a rippling pond. "I grew up in a really Yankee, repressed white culture. I had so much emotion bottle up inside. I did contemplate suicide regurarly. If you have any sensitivity, and I think that's a requirement for an artist, then you sense a lot of pain in the world. The first time I went to therapy, I cried the entire time and didn't say anything." In that period she wrote dark, introspective songs, including "Bethlehem." "My father asked that I not put it on the album," Cole says. "It was one of the few times that we really yelled at each other. He felt a sense of panic that people would think he was a bad father. I said, 'You can't censor art, and you can't censor truth.' " That night, Cole took mushrooms and had what she calls, " the worst trip of my life." Around this time, Cole met boyfriend Seyi Sonuga, a Nigerian musician and filmmaker who grew up in London. "All I can say is, his aura appeared to me," she marvels. "I felt his soul." After graduating, Cole moved to San Francisco and wrote furiously. In 1993 she was signed to Imago Records. A pre-release copy of Harbinger reached Peter Gabriel, who asked Cole to join his 1993-94 Secret World tour. After the tour, Cole had a spiritual breakthrough. "It led me to the understanding that God doesn't exist," she says. "I don't want to get too into it. It's too private. But I knew it with every cell. If you look at any leaf, any blade of grass, you can see that all things are interrelated...And my life had meaning." A trip to Rockport for her ten-year high school reunion gave her another boost. "They were so sweet and loving and proud," she says of the good citizens of Rockport, who keep some of her lyrics in a display case in the town library. Onstage, Cole made a transformation as well. "After she came back from that tour, she was just bigger than life," says Bellerose. When it came time to record This Fire, Cole had lined up Harbinger helmsman Kevin Killen to produce, but she canned him midway through and took over herself. "I wanted a more organic sound, a more old fashioned record," she says. The results earned Cole a Best Producer Grammy nomination, the first time ever, sadly enough, that a woman has been nominated in that category. This Fire has more confidence, and more joy, than its predecessor. Cole has a gift for melody, but throughout the record there is that raw, messy emotion that might make some folks uncomfortable. "Nietzsche's Eyes" ends with Cole nearly shrieking. "It's like a wounded animal cry," she says. "That's the very moment of the album that most critics lambaste. It's like anal-retentive people who think when you talk about poo it's the most hysterical thing." We stop to admire some more flowers. Cole has been striding purposefully through the park for two hours without breaking a sweat. Maybe there is something to all of that vegan business. Let's stop at an Italian place for a dairy-free meatless meal, shall we? "I like knowing I don't eat animal products," she says, digging into a salad. "I don't really drink or smoke cigarettes, either. Occasionally I'll have a toke of herb. "That's my little vice. Marijuana is like a lens- it intensifies wherever you're at." She stretches out in her chair, savoring her few days of relaxation before a European tour, after which she is thinking of doing "a really groovy remix" of "Feelin' Love." "I'd like a hip-hop slant to it or a jungle groove underneath," she says. "I'm talking to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis." Then, starting June 19th, Cole will once again join Lilith Fair, alongside Missy Elliot (!), Sinead O'Connor, Erykah Badu, Sheryl Crow and Natalie Merchant. Cole agrees with the criticism that last year's bill was too homogenous. "I was right there thinking that since Day One," she says, nodding vigorously. "But that's the music that Sarah (McLachlan) likes. I mean, she's from Nova Scotia. There's not a lot of hip-hop and rap coming from there, you know?" Cole is full of plans for the upcoming months. "I have such an interesting life ahead of me," she enthuses. "I want to be like Tina Turner, shaking my booty when I'm forty or fifty. I want to stand up for some causes. And I'm busting at the seams to do the next record. I have so many songs in me." A more immediate goal involves her shows. "I really want more black folks in my audience," Cole says. "They're the best audiences in the world, anyway. And it's my favorite music, whether it's jazz, hip-hop, rap. I have a lot to learn from the hip-hop world." She signals the waitress for the check. Before she gets up to leave, talk turns briefly to cats. Cole helpfully provides a recipe for all- natural cat food (organic beef, brown rice, grate in some carrots, add an egg yolk and vitamins), then we share a cab. She is dropped off first, after she politely thanks the driver. "That was the girl from the Grammys!" says Jacques, the Haitian cabdriver. "She was a nice lady. Nobody is nice to the cabdrivers, you know." He rounds a corner on two wheels. "She is a performer? In the show business?" He marvels for a minute. "But she is so quiet, no?" No. OK- also included besides the intro photo, which I already described, are 3 other photos. One of Paula using the finger cymbals at New York's Madison Square Garden, one of her and Seyi at the Grammy's all dressed up, and the last one rocks! It's of Paula receiving the title of prom queen, a tiara is being place on her head. It's great! Hope this was useful to some of you, I know I was very exciting when I starting thumbing through my copy and found Paula! ~Sharley - ------------------------------ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe harbinger Please note the new majordomo address To buy Paula merchandise from Paula(!) try: http://pw2.netcom.com/~ilml/pcmerch.html Digest, further unsub and problems FAQ at: http://www.netaxs.com/~jgreshes/lists/harbinger.html For This Fire kinda-lyrics write Riphug@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1998 15:25:16 -0400 From: "Chris Povie" Subject: Re: (harbinger) hey;-) Alot of OFF TOPICS!!!!! But This is important info, scan quickly if you like Missy Eliott/Donna Lewis/AllSaints oh lord >Well today was one hell of a day.... > >Janet Jackson is swinging my way, August 14 in Sacramento... >MY FIRST CONCERT IS JANET JACKSON!!! >I cant wait to go!!! > - ------------------------------ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe harbinger Please note the new majordomo address To buy Paula merchandise from Paula(!) try: http://pw2.netcom.com/~ilml/pcmerch.html Digest, further unsub and problems FAQ at: http://www.netaxs.com/~jgreshes/lists/harbinger.html For This Fire kinda-lyrics write Riphug@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1998 22:49:56 +0200 From: sus@home.ivm.de Subject: Re: (harbinger) Paula on TV (Europe) Christian Blaise schrieb: > Hi European Fans of Paula ! > > Remember, Paula is on Leno this evening (22:00 cet) on NBCeurope (was > yesterday in USA). I read on this list that it was great ! > > well, the disrtibution at SWF3...I know the director, and I will tell him > that I missed Hitler's Brothers !!!And I didn't understand why they > showed those f*ing guys that stodd in front of the stage during Bethlehem > and also several times after it. 5 mins before Beth. I asked them to sit > down because several people behind them could not see anything, but they > refused. I was shocked, because I found this very selfish...I hadnot > expected this on a Pauzla_ concert. And then i had to watch them dancing > (...badly:-)) and clapping their hands during Beth,..like they'd say > 'hey, great sound!' ...I hardly kept from screaming: "Listen! Listen WHAT she sings about!"...At this moment I was so angry that I had to leave the room. Maybe I took this too personal, because the song 'Bethlehem means a lot to me ( I , too do live in a small town....2300 inhabitants....and I know so well what Paula sings about....especially at this day when I travelled by train to the concert and watched my village from the other bank of the rhine..and just at this moment I listened to B. at my MD.player...I thought, well, she could have written this song for me!)Okay, that was it...but I think that Mr. Christian Wagner did a good job after all! If only they had had 2 hours to disribute the whole show.........Susanne > > > > ------------------------------ > To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: > unsubscribe harbinger > > Please note the new majordomo address > > To buy Paula merchandise from Paula(!) try: > http://pw2.netcom.com/~ilml/pcmerch.html > > Digest, further unsub and problems FAQ at: > http://www.netaxs.com/~jgreshes/lists/harbinger.html > For This Fire kinda-lyrics write Riphug@aol.com - ------------------------------ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe harbinger Please note the new majordomo address To buy Paula merchandise from Paula(!) try: http://pw2.netcom.com/~ilml/pcmerch.html Digest, further unsub and problems FAQ at: http://www.netaxs.com/~jgreshes/lists/harbinger.html For This Fire kinda-lyrics write Riphug@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1998 19:33:44 EDT From: HunterXTC Subject: Re: (harbinger) PC Article in Rolling Stone thanx for the post sharley!!! that was one of the better paula articles ive seen in a long time!!! well.. tomorrow tammy and i make the 2 and a half hour pilgrimage to pittsburgh to see paula at rosebud again... and i dig the fact that she echoes my sentiments exactly.. paula's music is so diverse, so focused on the rhythm, that i believe peole of all colours should get into it.. i know when i saw jonatha brooke a few months ago and could count all the black people there one one finger (me.. hehehee), it just makes me wonder what the hell is going on. i guess the facts are true.. we are still a segregated society, and i am sure that alot of people saw paula and seyi at the grammys and said what the hell is THAT about... but i guess thats the price one pays for their convictions... even though we shouldnt have to.... one thing im going to be checking out (besides the wonderful music) is the changing of the crowd from the last time i saw paula at this venue. cowboys was still on the verge of breaking, and paula was still doing alot of harbinger, and in essance, you could see people who were still hard core paula fans from pre-this fire. of course, this discussion has been rehashed again and again... the "true fan" debate. but thats a bunch of bs for sure.. there is no "true fan", but im just hoping that the people who are there come for the music, not some other trendy agenda because paula is a multi grammy nominee and a winner. as for that herb smoking... maybe shes taking a page from the sensi king himself bob marley... i think thats another reason there is so much to learn from this woman; shes into so many different things, thumbs her nose at things conventional, and has the power to make things happen the way she wants them to... i hope she tears the roof off rosebud tomorrow!!!! still wondering if i will be able to count on 2 fingers tomorrow... spanish - ------------------------------ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe harbinger Please note the new majordomo address To buy Paula merchandise from Paula(!) try: http://pw2.netcom.com/~ilml/pcmerch.html Digest, further unsub and problems FAQ at: http://www.netaxs.com/~jgreshes/lists/harbinger.html For This Fire kinda-lyrics write Riphug@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 02:10:42 +0200 From: sus@home.ivm.de Subject: (harbinger) Lyrics of 'surfacing' Could please somebody email me the lyrics of Sarah's 'surfacing' privately? Thanks, Susanne PS: I love this RollingStone article.... - ------------------------------ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe harbinger Please note the new majordomo address To buy Paula merchandise from Paula(!) try: http://pw2.netcom.com/~ilml/pcmerch.html Digest, further unsub and problems FAQ at: http://www.netaxs.com/~jgreshes/lists/harbinger.html For This Fire kinda-lyrics write Riphug@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1998 16:23:47 -0700 From: eric_antos@juno.com Subject: (harbinger) hello....Natalie Imbruglia News! Hey! Natalies next US Single will be Big Mistake. The video for it is really cool... The Torn single hasnt been released here yet i dont think.... Left of The Middle is #10 as of now on the POP CHARTS> Torn was released in Europe a long time ago... CD #2 of it was taken out of stores immediately, since it was wrong track listing for times........... Mocha and Left Of The Middle>>>A perfect combination. _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] - ------------------------------ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe harbinger Please note the new majordomo address To buy Paula merchandise from Paula(!) try: http://pw2.netcom.com/~ilml/pcmerch.html Digest, further unsub and problems FAQ at: http://www.netaxs.com/~jgreshes/lists/harbinger.html For This Fire kinda-lyrics write Riphug@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 02:55:35 +0200 From: sus@home.ivm.de Subject: Re: (harbinger) PC Article in Rolling Stone I like the thought of Paula smoking pot....yeah, that makes definitely sense...GREAT article...I can't wait until I get the issue at the Cologne Train station... They usually have around the middle of the month. And I don't care that it will cost me 18 DM...this time it'll be worth it - ------------------------------ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe harbinger Please note the new majordomo address To buy Paula merchandise from Paula(!) try: http://pw2.netcom.com/~ilml/pcmerch.html Digest, further unsub and problems FAQ at: http://www.netaxs.com/~jgreshes/lists/harbinger.html For This Fire kinda-lyrics write Riphug@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 01:14:41 EDT From: DWspinTHIS Subject: Re: (harbinger) hello....Natalie Imbruglia News! is there a natalie imbruglia mailing list or something, does anyone know? - ------------------------------ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe harbinger Please note the new majordomo address To buy Paula merchandise from Paula(!) try: http://pw2.netcom.com/~ilml/pcmerch.html Digest, further unsub and problems FAQ at: http://www.netaxs.com/~jgreshes/lists/harbinger.html For This Fire kinda-lyrics write Riphug@aol.com ------------------------------ End of harbinger-digest V3 #124 *******************************